ho has suffered
sorely even to this hour, from Nero down to Pio Nono, the days of thine
oppression are over. Gone from thy enfranchised ways for ever is the
clang of the praetorian cohorts and the more odious drone of meddling
monks!" And yet, as Mackinnon observed, there still stood the dirty
friars and the small French soldiers, and there still toiled the slow
priests, wending their tedious way up to the church of the Ara Coeli.
But that was the mundane view of the matter, a view not regarded by Mrs.
Talboys in her ecstasy. "O Italia," she continued, "O Italia una, one
and indivisible in thy rights, and indivisible also in thy wrongs! to us
is it given to see the accomplishment of thy glory. A people shall arise
around thine altars greater in the annals of the world than thy Scipios,
thy Gracchi, or thy Caesars. Not in torrents of blood or with screams
of bereaved mothers shall thy new triumphs be stained; but mind shall
dominate over matter, and, doomed together with popes and Bourbons, with
cardinals, diplomatists, and police spies, ignorance and prejudice shall
be driven from thy smiling terraces. And then Rome shall again become
the fair capital of the fairest region of Europe. Hither shall flock the
artisans of the world, crowding into thy marts all that God and man can
give. Wealth, beauty, and innocence shall meet in thy streets--"

"There will be a considerable change before that takes place," said
Mackinnon.

"There shall be a considerable change," she answered. "Mackinnon, to
thee it is given to read the signs of the time; and hast thou not read?
Why have the fields of Magenta and Solferino been piled with the corpses
of dying heroes? Why have the waters of the Mincio run red with the
blood of martyrs? That Italy might be united and Rome immortal. Here,
standing on the Capitolium of the ancient city, I say that it shall be
so; and thou, Mackinnon, who hearest me knowest that my words are true."

There was not then in Rome--I may almost say there was not in Italy--an
Englishman or an American who did not wish well to the cause for which
Italy was and is still contending, as also there is hardly one who does
not now regard that cause as well-nigh triumphant; but nevertheless
it was almost impossible to sympathise with Mrs. Talboys. As Mackinnon
said, she flew so high that there was no comfort in flying with her.

"Well," said he, "Brown and the rest of them are down below. Shall we go
and join them?"

"Po